Climate change data (whether for future or past conditions) provider here was derived from the output of global climate models. These models are run using a set of boundary conditions, called a scenario. A scenario defines, for example, how much CO2 there is in the atmosphere at a given point in time. The IPCC has distributed data generated based on ISO92a scenarios but more recently it has used the SRES scenarios.
These data are invariably produced at a rather coarse resolution. Moreover, they cannot mimic current climate very well in all geographic regions. Therefore, we derived high resolution surfaces using the following downscaling procedures. Monthly means were calculated for model runs for the current climate and for future or past conditions. The difference between the future and current climate was calculated. These 'change data' were statistically downscaled to a 30-arc second resolution, using smoothing (spatial interpolation). The disaggregated values were then applied to the estimates for current climate from WorldClim, yielding high resolution data for a different time period.
Future conditions (more coming soon)
| Model | Scenario | Description |
| CCM3 | 2 x CO2 | Model runs by Bala
Govindasamy and Phil Duffy of Lawrence-Livermore national laboratories. The
model was run at a very high (~50 km)
resolution, for 2 x CO2 conditions. See:
B.
Govindasamy, P. B. Duffy, J. Coquard, 2003. High-resolution simulations of
global climate, part 2: effects of increased greenhouse cases. Climate Dynamics
21: 391–404. |
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WorldClim Homepage |
Last modified on 19 Jan 2006 |